The serenity of my surroundings hid the fact that there was a dangerous sea goddess stalking me at every turn. I twisted around in an attempt to get my bearings. I saw a flash of movement in the corner of my eye and I shot after it. I continued deeper into the forest until I was completely lost.
The water temperature dropped suddenly, and the kelp around me quivered before shooting towards me at mach speed. The individual fronds wrapped around my arms, legs, and stomach. As they squeezed tighter, I knew that Keto was close. I struggled against their slimy fingers, but they were relentless. Icy rage bubbled up in my stomach and instantly I distinguished the feeling of remorse from the kelp holding me hostage. It sent a current similar to menthol through my skin and released me. Interesting.
Knowing Keto must be watching, I decided to use the kelp to my advantage. I reached out to my surroundings one more time and was able to sense a cool presence a couple of feet to my left. I reached my hands out to the kelp and willed it to give me a clear sight of Keto. A frenzy of sensations flowed into my hands and an invisible energy split and bent the kelp, creating a path for me to follow.
Suddenly, the kelp around a very stunned Keto bent back, revealing her hiding place. Her head swiveled in surprise and her emerald eyes swirled a bright neon green, as she extended her arms and splayed her fingers.
“Traitors!” she shouted at the giant plants with hatred. Green energy flowed out of her fingers as she sliced the kelp in half, their top fronds floating helplessly to the sea floor. The despair I endured as she mowed down half the forest cut deep and enraged me even more. I could feel the resentment and pain swirling in the water, and thanked Keto silently for unknowingly making my idea that much easier to execute.
I held my arms out, palms down, and willed the seaweed that was still alive to attack her. A mass of green silently rose from the depths and wrapped around her. Several larger strands twisted around and flung themselves at her; cutting into her skin and leaving the water red with her blood. I heard her cry out in rage, but the kelp continued its relentless attack.
Suddenly, something razor sharp impaled my left calf, causing me to lose my concentration in a fog of overwhelming agony. The electric eel that had done the damage swam away into the dark, and I heard Keto laugh as she was able to overcome the kelp with her energy. I pulled from the ocean’s energy and felt the pain in my calf subside. I glanced down and smiled as the wound began to close.
“You’re gonna have to do better than that!” I yelled at her as I swam away. I felt her on my heels as I spotted a shipwreck up ahead. I ducked into one of the broken windows and made sure my dagger was still tucked safely in my pants. The handle sparkled in the moonlight that filtered through the surface.
“You can’t hide in there forever, coward,” I heard Keto snicker. I gritted my teeth at her accusation, and then smiled with delight as I found what I was looking for. A small reef shark swam up to me, her curiosity pulsing around her smooth gray body. I rubbed a hand over her back and willed her to follow me. I swam back out of the ship and peeked back to make sure she was still there. Unfortunately Keto was way ahead of me, and her eel pierced the shark with a ferocity that made my heart squeeze. I rounded on Keto and sent a wave of energy at her. It wrapped around her, but with a smile she blew it away with her own. Suddenly there were at least twelve sting rays flying around me, their beady eyes trained on me.
They mimicked every move I made, watching me carefully. A shockwave of cool energy hit my chest, knocking the breath out of me and blurring my vision. My world exploded in pain as the rays instigated their attack. My arm, my legs, and my shoulder were stabbed over and over, blocking my vision as the blood swirled around me. I felt myself hit the sea floor, but the rays didn’t let up. I mustered up as much energy as I could and tried to blow them off of me, but this made them come back even madder.
I felt a soothing presence arrive, but the frenzy of rays and the sand that my thrashing was churning up left me unable to see what or who it was. One by one the rays disappeared, and I was able to deduce what was happening. A massive sea turtle was taking chunks out of them, diverting their attention to her instead of me. I pushed off the sea floor and put as much distance between me and the rays as possible. Suddenly a bright green light shot out of the darkness and collided with the sea turtle, killing her instantly.
It felt like my own life had been taken, and the despair of it all crippled me. My stomach convulsed and my head exploded in pain. How could she do this? How could she be a sea goddess and have absolutely no respect for its creatures? As rage replaced the pain I harbored, I swam towards her and pulled the dagger from my pants. She saw me coming and sent me a sick grin that prickled across my skin. I threw a stream of blue sparkling energy in her direction, and it bounced off of whatever shield she had been able to throw up. She smiled again and started to…twirl?
As she spun faster and faster the water also started to spin, pulling me with it. I shot energy at her, but it spun off and dissipated into the water behind her. Keto finally stopped spinning, and my eyes had trouble convincing my brain that they weren’t seeing a hallucination. Every inch of her skin had darkened to a deep green; covered in overlapping scales. Her dark hair had taken on a life of its own - the separate strands melding together and squirming in the water like snakes. Her eyes had eclipsed a solid black, and the nose that once adorned her face had shrunk to two simple holes. She flashed triangular teeth at me and actually hissed, as a forked tongue shot out. She was something in between a snake and a lizard; both sending chills down my spine.
She moved towards me without swimming, and I backed up in shocked silence. As her hair morphed into full blown snakes that writhed and hissed atop her head, I fought the urge to throw up.
A blinding light suddenly shot out from within her, sending out a shockwave of green that radiated out from her body; leveling everything it came in contact with. Including me. I watched as my dagger was ripped from my hand, and tumbled out of my line of sight.
I was thrown onto a reef as Keto’s energy followed suit; waging war on my body. The coral that supported my weight sliced through my clothes and ripped my skin open, as I tried to struggle against my attackers. What I had first thought were snakes atop her head were actually electric eels.
They detached from her skull and like a sidewinder snake, cut through the water and headed straight for me. Large spinning barbs of green energy commenced to piercing my skin and burrowing into my body. They continued to stab me again and again, painting the ocean a deep murky red. The electric eels rubbed against my skin, sending volts of electricity through me and causing me to convulse and shake. My body slid down the side of the coral as I fought to defend myself; its sharp edges tearing across what skin was left on my back.
I pulled from the sand and blew my energy outward, but neither the barbs nor the eels were affected. I had to figure out how to combine my essences if I was going to overcome Keto’s power. I knew I was stronger than her. I knew I could defeat her. The main thing she had over me was experience. A barb suddenly stabbed me in the stomach and twisted sharply, as it pierced several organs on the way in. An eel ran its belly along the same wound, and I thought my soul had caught fire. The result left me racked with a pain that elicited screams from deep within; the kind of screams you hear when someone is about to die. Unfortunately, the cool reprieve of death would never come for me.
Chapter 43
I was reminded of the one way I could die, as I blinked my eyes open through the pain and made out her form as it hovered above me. Keto floated down toward me, more eels dancing around her face; enhancing the psychotic grin playing on her scaly lips. She held up her dagger and winked a cold black eye at me.